Master's Word

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Group meditation in London, UK,
March 10, 1998 (Originally in English) Videotape No. 631

For the initiates, I told you it is the soul, not the body, not the outside. Someone might repeat the Holy Names all the time but not do the good things that the Master teaches. They don't really respect and want the Lord. But the person who is very pure and innocent, like a farmer, and doesn't deliberately forget the Lord and the Holy Names longs in his heart for the Master all the time. Even though he might forget, he still remembers and wants the Master.

So it's not just the Holy Names that bring you to the Kingdom. It's the soul. If the person really wants it, then the Master can do anything. Even without initiation, the Master can take them. They don't need initiation. People with the Convenient Method can go up to Heaven. For people who just see the Master one time and then are praying in their heart at the time of death, the Master comes.

But some initiated people are stubborn. They think that being initiated means they can do what they want. They have to learn their lesson. If they want to go back to transmigration, it's their own choice. The Master doesn't interfere; the Master just helps. This is the problem with many initiates of different traditions, maybe including ours. They rely on the Master power. They think initiation gives them everything. And then they go out and do wrong things. Many of the so-called sects in India and elsewhere do a lot of wrong things to people; people are scared of them. Because they think that if the master initiated them, they can do anything they want and they will never transmigrate. That's wrong!

But there are those who at least try in their hearts. They try their best under the circumstances, within their power. It's not that they have to try their best according to the Lord, or to the Master, but try their best according to their ability and their strength. For the people who don't want to try even when given the opportunity, it means they want the world, not the Lord. And they have to go back to where they want.

It's very difficult alone. That's why we need group meditation. If a person doesn't meditate, if he doesn't repeat the Holy Names and doesn't eat vegetarian, then he goes on his own. Whenever he is ready, the Master will come back again. But at the time of death, if he still is not ready, if he still doesn't call upon the Master, and he still doesn't care and wants to go back to the world, then he can do that. It depends.

Sometimes outwardly people don't meditate very well, but inside their hearts, they do. So whether a person wants it in his heart is also important. But this is a subtle thing that you cannot always explain in words. You must know it from your heart. For example, if you love a woman, you just love her - you know it in your heart. And she is the only woman you love. You can't explain that, and you can't prove it to anyone. But you know in your heart that she is the only woman. It doesn't matter how many beautiful women are around you, you still love only that one.

That is the same thing with spiritual commitment. It doesn't matter what I say, and it doesn't matter what you say - you know in your heart that you want God or don't want God. And that is the important thing. It's not that you sit so many hours, or you go to so many group meditations. Group meditation only helps you. Suppose you really want God, then group meditation helps you more. It strengthens your faith and makes you sit better.

But just because you go to a lot of group meditation doesn't mean you want God. Not necessarily! You might want to see the lady next door, instead of going to see inside. It's like love. You have it or you don't have it. No one can force you to love another woman, no matter how much more beautiful, intelligent or rich she is. You love that one, and that's it. You know it. It's final. (Applause)

It's very simple. I don't want to give you the wrong notion that initiation physically alone will bring you to God, because that would be blasphemy. That would be forcing you to do it. Suppose you want to change your mind afterwards. I can't force you to go to the Kingdom of God. It's all by your free will that you come, and it's all by your free will that you stay. And it's by your free will at the last moment of your life to come back to where you belong. In the last moment, if you change your mind and say, "No, Master, forget it! Bye-bye! I want to go back to see that lady next door." Then you will go. We are all God, remember!

No one can give you anything that you don't already have or that you don't want. Initiation just awakens your own God power, if you want it. If you don't want it, you can put it aside, just like before, and then continue with your ignorant life, no problem. Initiation is a help, group meditation is a help, vegetarianism is a help, and discipline is a help. They're not the ultimate. They're not the end. They are a means to an end only. Your heart must want it above everything else. Then all these things will help you.

If you don't want God, you can eat vegetarian for a thousand years, you can sit for two thousand years and you can get initiated three thousand times, but you are still nowhere. These are just outer rituals, like people who go and bow to so-and-so. They don't understand; they don't commit. But there are other people who don't look like they meditate well, and they can't even repeat the Holy Names properly. But God knows. And they know that they want God. It's simple! (Applause)